software Archives

Tag: software

Micro Survey of Smart Home Devices Finds Much To Fault

July 30, 2014 Paul Roberts

Larry Dignan over at ZDNet is writing about a new survey by HP’s Fortify application security division that finds 70 percent of Internet of things devices have exploitable software vulnerabilities. Some caveats: HP makes its conclusions based on scans of “10 of the most popular Internet of things devices.” That’s a very small sample size that could (greatly) skew the results one way or the other. So take this with a grain of salt. You can download the full survey here. (PDF) [Read Security Ledger coverage of Internet of Things here.] According to Dignan, HP found 25 vulnerabilities per device. Audited devices included TVs, Webcams, thermostats, remote power outlets, sprinklers, door locks, home alarms, scales and garage openers. One of each, from the sound of it. The findings, assessed based on the OWASP Internet of Things Top 10 list and vulnerability categories, account for the devices as well as cloud and […]

A Guide to Internet of Things Standards | Computerworld

July 23, 2014 Paul Roberts

From Colin Neagle over at Computerworld: a run-down of emergent IoT standards – a list that has suddenly become rather long. From his article: “The complexity of these standardization efforts has evoked comparisons to the VHS and Betamax competition in the 1980s. Re/Code’s Ina Fried wrote, “there’s no way all of these devices will actually be able to all talk to each other until all this gets settled with either a victory or a truce.” In the meantime, we’re likely to see some debate among the competing factions. “If this works out at all like past format wars, heavyweights will line up behind each different approach and issue lots of announcements about how much momentum theirs are getting,” Fried wrote. “One effort will undoubtedly gain the lead, eventually everyone will coalesce and then, someday down the road, perhaps all these Internet of Things devices will actually be able to talk to […]

EFF wants to make Wi-Fi routers more secure | theguardian.com

July 22, 2014 Paul Roberts

Home routers and wi-fi access points are the canaries in the coal mine for security on the Internet of Things. Simply put: they’re ubiquitous, Internet-connected and innocuous. Unlike mobile phones, wi-fi routers aren’t in your pocket – buzzing and ringing and demanding your attention. In fact, it’s safe to be that the vast majority of Internet users are concerned wouldn’t know how to connect- and log in to their router if they had to. But appearances can deceive. Broadband routers are, indeed, mini computers that run a fully featured operating system and are perfectly capable of being attacked, compromised and manipulated. We have already seen examples of modern malware spreading between these devices. In March, the security firm Team Cymru published a report (PDF) describing what it claimed was a compromise of 300,000 small office and home office (SOHO) wireless routers that was linked to cyber criminal campaigns targeting online banking customers. In January, […]

TRUST: Threat Reduction via Understanding Subjective Treatment

July 22, 2014 Lance James

It has become obvious (to me, anyway) that spam, phishing, and malicious software are not going away. Rather, their evolution (e.g. phishing-to-spear phishing) has made it easier to penetrate business networks and increase the precision of such attacks. Yet we still apply the same basic technology such as bayesian spam filters and blacklists to keep the human at the keyboard from unintentionally letting these miscreants onto our networks. Ten years ago, as spam and phishing were exploding, the information security industry offered multiple solutions to this hard problem. A decade later, the solutions remain: SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance). Still: we find ourselves still behind the threat, rather than ahead of it. Do we have the right perspective on this? I wonder. The question commonly today is: “How do we identify the lie?” But as machine learning and data science become the new norm, I’m […]

Is It Time For Customs To Inspect Software? | Veracode Blog

July 18, 2014 Paul Roberts

If you want to import beef, eggs or chicken into the U.S., you need to get your cargo past inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not so hardware and software imported into the U.S. and sold to domestic corporations. But a spate of stories about products shipping with malicious software raises the question: is it time for random audits to expose compromised supply chains? Concerns about ‘certified, pre-pwned’ hardware and software are nothing new. In fact, they’ve permeated the board rooms of technology and defense firms, as well as the halls of power in Washington, D.C. for years. The U.S. Congress conducted a high profile investigation of Chinese networking equipment maker ZTE in 2012 with the sole purpose of exploring links between the company and The People’s Liberation Army, and (unfounded) allegations that products sold by the companies were pre-loaded with spyware. Of course, now we know that such […]